Frontera NorteSur November -December  2003

Tijuana Choked with Smoke from San Diego-Area Fires

Baja California health officials have told Tijuana residents to wear face masks for protection from the smoke and ash created by fires in the San Diego area. Gabriel Gómez Ruiz, head of the State Office of Civil Protection (Dirección Estatal de Protección Civil, DEPC), stated that everyone should wear the masks if possible. 

Although black smoke from the fires hangs over Tijuana and ash is settling throughout the city, state officials have emphasized that schools and businesses are not closed. However, the parents of children with past histories of asthma are warned to keep their children indoors and to keep them home from school, said Juan José Ramos Aguilera, an official with the state educational system. Also, physical education teachers have been told not to take students outside until conditions improve. 

Gómez, the head of the State Office of Civil Protection, told Tijuana residents to sweep up any ash outside their homes and to dispose of it in closed bags. Gómez is concerned that the Santa Ana winds will lift the ash back into the air. 

Tijuana's Frontera newspaper wrote that the smoke over the city on Sunday, October 26 was so thick that the sun appeared as a red disk that one could look at with bare eyes. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), October 27, 2003.

Tamaulipas Pesticide Vendors Fined for Violating Food Health Law

So far in 2003, Mexico's federal-level Secretariat of Agriculture, SAGARPA, has fined 60 Tamaulipas businesses for violating regulations related to the sale of pesticides. 

Some companies were fined for selling banned or expired pesticides. Others were punished for selling pesticides without registering them with SAGARPA or for having untrained salespeople handle transactions. 

Fines range from 15,000 to 30,000 pesos (approximately US$1,300 to $2,600) depending on the seriousness of the offense. 

According to Luis Carlos García Albarrán, the head of SAGARPA in Tamaulipas, the primary objective of SAGARPA's enforcement is to make sure that pesticide vendors, distributors and sprayers respect Mexico's food health law called the Ley de Sanidad Vegetal (literally translated as the Vegetable Health Law). 

García says that one of the major problems SAGARPA found is that many of the fined businesses had been selling expired pesticides. 

The state has 145 stores that sell pesticides and 22 companies that apply them. 

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), December 11, 2003. 

Burgos Basin to Provide Jobs and a Clean Environment, Say Officials

Over the next twenty years, Tamaulipas development officials project that 15,000 jobs will be created through the exploitation of natural gas in the Burgos Basin. The extensive natural gas resources of the basin underlie the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila and are considered by Mexico to be an important part of the nation's energy future. 

Jorge Reyes Moreno, head of Economic Development and Employment for the state of Tamaulipas, presented a Burgos Basin job-creation program to representatives of the state's business community. Small and medium businesses will be significant sources of job creation in the new plan. 

Reyes also stated that Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos) will channel its largest investments to the northern part of Tamaulipas. This will include the cities of Valle Hermoso, Río Bravo and Reynosa. 

Besides bringing job opportunities, the development of the Burgos Basin will also provide water, electricity and new homes to the region, according to Juan José de la Fuente Saldívar, a local business representative. 

Juan Manuel Sánchez Bujanos, speaking for Pemex, stated that the development plan for the Burgos Basin outlines the sustainable environmental norms that will guide drilling in the basin. 

Despite Sánchez's desire to maintain a clean environment throughout the basin, development already underway has shown that Pemex may need to better its current environmental practices. 

In January 2003 of this year, Frontera NorteSur reported that the basin was Tamaulipas' largest environmental problem, according to Profepa, Mexico's equivalent to the US EPA. 

To read this article go to: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/feb03/envi.html

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), November 3, 2003. 

Nuevo Laredo Transportation Companies Must Improve Oil Storage, Says Profepa

Mexico's Procuraduría Federal del Medio Ambiente (Profepa), an organization equivalent to the US's EPA, has found proof of inadequate storage measures for used auto oil at 13 of 18 transportation companies it has visited. Eight other companies were also inspected but results have not yet been made public. 

Mario Acosta Montoya, head of Profepa's regional office responsible for Nuevo Laredo, said that authorities are worried that heavy rains could flood inappropriate oil storage facilities and send oil into a nearby body of water know as El Laguito and even into the Rio Grande. 

All companies that were found to have had oil spilled on the ground will be fined, Acosta stated. Furthermore, if storage problems are not resolved at these companies, they will be closed, he added. 

The companies have ten to fifteen days to upgrade their oil storage systems. Acosta did not indicate how many of the 13 companies were found to have spilled oil on their premises. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), October 7, 2003. Article by Monica Lobo. 

Neighbors Complain that Mexicali Brick Kilns Cause Air Quality Problems 

Eight large brick-making plants near the Mexicali neighborhood of Laguna Campestre contaminate the area's air when they burn tires, animal manure and other flammable materials for three to four days straight, says Juan Martínez, a Laguna Campestre resident and former president of the  neighborhood association. 

According to Martínez, thousands of people in Laguna Campestre suffer daily because of the smoke and stench that the brick kilns emit. Particularly affected by the pollution are children and the elderly, he says. 

A reporter from the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica found that every brick factory in the area had a stack of tires nearby, perhaps to burn. Animal manure was also seen on the lots but La Crónica noted that manure is also used in the fabrication of bricks and not just to fire them. 

Besides Laguna Campestre, other neighborhoods such as Francisco I. Madero, Rivera Campestre, Leandro Valle, Los Naranjos and others are also in reach of the acrid smoke, according to La Crónica. 

Martínez showed to La Crónica copies of letters that he had written to city, state and federal environmental agencies. Rather than resolve the pollution problem, each agency would only suggest that the kilns were within the jurisdiction of a different agency, said Martínez.

In his numerous attempts to improve local air quality, Martínez stated that he contacted the state environmental office, the city environmental office, the federal environmental agencies Profepa and Semarnat and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad and the Comisión Nacional del Agua. 

According to Martínez there are only two possible solutions to the problem: move the plants or switch them over to natural gas as was done in Guanajuato. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), November 25, 2003. Article by Nancy Vásquez.

Free Hamburgers for Prompt Water Payments

Unpaid water bills are a severe threat to the health of utility companies on Mexico's northern border and throughout Mexico. For example, in 2001, Nuevo Laredo had delinquent accounts totaling the equivalent of approximately US$3 million which contributed to operational inefficiencies, slow service, waterline breaks and a lack of water meters for homes. In Reynosa, also in 2001, the utility company  there was shutting off the water supply to 750 homes per day on accounts that were three to twelve months delinquent. 

In Tijuana, the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana (State Commission of Tijuana Public Services, Cespt) has decided to take proactive steps to keep accounts current. The first incentive that Cespt announced is a coupon given to people that pay their water bill on time. The coupon is good for a free hamburger with the purchase of a meal at a Tijuana restaurant. 

A second incentive is a 20% discount for up to five people at Foxploration, a theme park in Baja California related to Fox Studios Baja which was created for the filming of Titanic. 

Cespt is also looking for other companies that are interested in rewarding water users that pay their bills promptly. 

Miguel Avila Niebla, the director of Cespt, says that the water utility also offers a variety of payment plans for people that have fallen behind in the payment of their bills. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), December 8, 2003.